The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892 in San Francisco, California by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who became the first president as well as the longest serving president, at approximately 20 years in this leadership position. The Sierra Club operates only in the United States; Sierra Club Canada is a separate entity.
The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs after they won the right to vote. It was founded in 1920 to support the new women suffrage rights and was a merger of National Council of Women Voters, founded by Emma Smith DeVoe, and National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote. The League of Women Voters began as a "mighty political experiment" aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their responsibilities as voters. Originally, only women could join the league; but in 1973 the charter was modified to include men. LWV operates at the local, state, and national level, with over 1,000 local and 50 state leagues, and one territory league in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The league states that it has over 500,000 members and supporters.
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an American environmental advocacy group. LCV says that it "advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environment candidates." The organization pursues its goals through voter education, voter mobilization, and direct contributions to political candidates. LCV includes 29 state affiliates. LCV was founded in 1970 by environmentalist Marion Edey, with support from David Brower. The group's current president is Gene Karpinski. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has over two million members.
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller was an American businessman, financier, philanthropist, and conservationist. Rockefeller was a son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. As a trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, he provided venture capital for Intel, Apple Computer and many other successful start-ups. Rockefeller was known for his involvement in wilderness preservation, ecology and the protection of wildlife. His crusade was the establishing of a conservation ethic, and he was declared America's leading conservationist by Lady Bird Johnson.
Kenneth Lee Salazar is an American lawyer and politician who is the United States ambassador to Mexico–designate. He previously served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was a United States Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009. He and Mel Martinez (R-Florida) were the first Hispanic U.S. Senators since 1977; they were joined by Bob Menendez in 2006. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, he served as Attorney General of Colorado from 1999 to 2005.
The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is a New York statewide student-directed, non-partisan, not for profit political organization. It has existed since 1973. Its current executive director is Blair Horner and its founding director was Donald K. Ross.
The Oregon Historical Society(OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preserves, and makes available materials of historical character and interest, and collaborates with other groups and individuals with similar aims. The society operates the Oregon History Center that includes the Oregon Historical Society Museum in downtown Portland.
Deb Callahan is an American environmental and political leader. In 2011, she became the executive director of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association in the San Francisco Bay area. Previously she served as president of The H. John Heinz III Center For Science, Economics And The Environment, a Washington, DC, nonprofit institution dedicated to improving the scientific and economic foundation for environmental policy.
Sara Taylor Fagen is a technology and data entrepreneur, and former staff member in the administration of President George W. Bush.
Sir Peter Crane, FRS is the current President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation and Senior Research Scientist in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. In addition to his work in leading and developing educational and natural history organizations, including the Field Museum in Chicago and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he has had a long career as a professor and researcher in both the U.K. and the United States. He is best known for his work on the origin and early evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) based on studies of the plant fossil record. His popular writing includes Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot, a book that traces the evolution and cultural history of Ginkgo biloba to the present day.
William "Bill" McGuire, M.D. is an American healthcare executive best known for his tenure as chairman and chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group from 1991 until his resignation in 2006, while under investigation for securities fraud, for which he would later settle out of court. He also owns Minnesota United FC, Minnesota's professional soccer team.
Louis Charles Karpinski was an American mathematician.
Jules A. Hoffmann is a Luxembourg-born French biologist. During his youth, growing up in Luxembourg, he developed a strong interest in insects under the influence of his father, Jos Hoffmann. This eventually resulted in the younger Hoffmann's dedication to the field of biology using insects as model organisms. He currently holds a faculty position at the University of Strasbourg. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France. He was elected to the positions of Vice-President (2005-2006) and President (2007-2008) of the French Academy of Sciences. Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler were jointly awarded a half share of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity,". [More specifically, the work showing increased Drosomycin expression following activation of Toll pathway in microbial infection.]
John Hamilton Adams is an environmental activist, lawyer, and founder of the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC). He founded the NRDC in 1970 and served as the executive director until 1998 when he became the President. As of 2006, Adams is the Founding Director of the organization. With the help of his team at the NRDC, Adams has worked on numerous environmental movements including passing the Clean Water Act, phasing of lead from gasoline, and curbing the emissions of coal-burning power plants. He has authored three books and written many research papers. In 2010, Adams received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his achievements in environmental activism.
John M. Simpson is an American consumer rights advocate and former journalist. Since 2005, he has worked for Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan nonprofit public interest group, as the lead researcher on Inside Google, the group's effort to educate the public about Google's dominance over the internet and the need for greater online privacy and as director of the organization's Stem Cell Oversight and Accountability Project to ensure that California’s stem cell program, created by Proposition 71, served the interest of voters.
Gail Lavielle is a former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, where she represented the 143rd district. The district includes parts of Wilton, Norwalk, and, following redistricting in 2012, Westport. Representative Lavielle, an Assistant House Minority Leader, was the House Ranking Member of the Connecticut General Assembly's Appropriations Committee, and served on the Transportation and Education Committees. During her 10 years in the legislature, she also served on the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee and Higher Education Committee and as House Ranking Member of both the Education Committee and the Commerce Committee.
In the United States, Donald K. Ross is a public interest lawyer. Ross proposed the model of Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGS) with Ralph Nader. Ross became the first director of the NYPIRG. He helped to found the Albany law firm of Malkin & Ross, and its associated advocacy organization M+R Strategic Services. He has served on the board of directors of environmental organizations.
The Democracy Initiative is a progressive coalition formed in late 2012 which had goals of restricting the unlimited monetary donations by corporations and the wealthy to political campaigns and causes permitted by the United States Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, supporting voters' rights, combating voter ID laws, and curbing aggressive use of the filibuster in the United States Senate. The coalition was formed at an invitation only meeting at National Education Association headquarters by the NEA, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the Communications Workers of America, and the NAACP.
Maud Wood Park was an American suffragist and women's rights activist.
Missouri Public Interest Research Group (MoPIRG) is a non-profit organization that is part of the state PIRG organizations.
